


But after this life I'll find you in the next

by dysfunctionalbeehive



Series: Ruin Week [3]
Category: The Lobby
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Immortal Runo, Romantic Fluff, Ruin Week, Ruin Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:29:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27141787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dysfunctionalbeehive/pseuds/dysfunctionalbeehive
Summary: Day 3 - Eternityimmortal Runo au where she's just hopelessly gay.
Relationships: Runo (the lobby)/Quin (the lobby)
Series: Ruin Week [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1978696
Kudos: 1





	But after this life I'll find you in the next

“You're late” she doesn’t even bother looking up as her companion approaches, the bright colours adorning their new outfit hurting her eyes even from the corner. They chuckled, staying standing before the girl.

“Sorry, you know how traffic gets” they joke, looking over those damn orange tinted glasses, a smug grin never once leaving their face. 

“You can’t drive” that only earns her a shrug, which in turn makes her smile. 

“Dumbass, it’s been too long Judas”

“Too long? So we’re calling a few months too long now, I’m worried about your perspective of time Runo” The white haired girl only laughed, shaking her head lightly. 

They had a good point, once upon a time the pair would go centuries without seeing one another, that was of course before the internet existed, now a quick message was all that was needed for the two immortals to meet. 

Runo stands up to meet Judas half way, giving one another a quick hug before they sit down at their table, some local coffee shop Judas had suggested. Runo wasn’t one for coffee but Judas had assured her the place did some fantastic milkshakes ‘For her baby taste buds’ they had also said she had ordered one out of spite. Now looking Judas in the eye, Runo took in their new appearance. Slicked back neon coloured hair, the previously mentioned orange shades were pushed on top of their head, a leather jacket with so many different bright colours she was sure she’d get a migraine if she looked too long, and a crop top shirt underneath that she couldn’t read. 

“I see you’ve decided on your look for the decade” she said, nodding her head from behind her glass. Judas simply grinned, shrugging their jacket off to reveal the bold letters on their crop top, which simply spelt out ‘SLUT’. Runo choked on her milkshake, causing the surrounding customers to stare at her coughing fit as Judas wheezed with laughter. 

“It-it got better” she struggled out, laughing between coughs. 

They wiped a tear from their eye, laughter fading off “What can I say, being this fashionable is a gift, I see you're still in your comfy casual” Runo rolled her eyes in response, even if it was correct that she hadn’t changed her outfit from big sweaters in a good few years. 

“If it works, it works” she pointed out. 

“True, alright I’ll go grab a drink, then you're going to tell me all about this ‘new’ girlfriend” Judas said, grinning as they got up from the table. 

She should’ve expected the topic to come up, but it still left Runo with her stomach fluttering even after 11 months of being with her partner again. To get lucky enough to find the love of one's life more than once was well, highly unlikely to say the least. And yet she had done it, she had found Quin a second time. 

//

It had happened by accident, after Quin passed away Runo had promised to find them again. As Quin lay dying, taking in her last breaths she had laughed, that perfect Quin laugh and gently cupped Runo’s cheek.

“I hope we get that lucky” she had whispered. 

Runo had waited, and then she had looked, no clue as to what she should be looking for but still searching. It had been admittedly fruitless, reincarnation didn’t exactly leave a breadcrumb trail, even if it did, Runo had no clue if Quin had even been reborn again yet. A few centuries passed and the immortal was admitting to feeling pretty defeated, at that point Quin could already be living out her life with someone else. Runo would never take that away from her love, but it would sting.

She had all but given up, that was until one fateful grocery trip. She hadn’t been paying attention when a loud crash came from down the aisle, turning her head she could see a girl had dropped her basket and it’s contents had fallen out. Deciding to participate in her one good act per day, Runo had walked over and helped the shopper. 

“Huh, this is a lot of flour” Runo remarked, holding two out of six bags up. A nervous laugh came from the other.

“Yeah, figured it was uh, good to stock up” the shopper replied, looking at her Runo took note of her appearance. For one, she was very pretty, with big glasses over bright green eyes and freckles that seemed to have no end. Her hair was a short pixie cut-ish style.  
It was then that Runo’s brain kicked into high gear. 

“Always good to stock up” she had said with a smile, happy to see the relieved look the other took on. 

“Y’know, you could make a lot of bread with this much flour” she remarked, carefully helping the other put their goods back into the basket. 

“Funny, that’s . . . actually why I was buying so much,” the other noted, raising her head as she looked at Runo, confusion clear in her eyes. “Hey sorry this might sound weird but, do I know you?”

She might as well kneed Runo in the stomach with how the air abandoned Runo’s lungs. That was enough puzzle pieces to figure it out. She held it together, picking up the girls basket for her and offering a hand to help her up.

“I doubt it, but if you’d like to, a . . . friend of mine once gave me the perfect recipe for the perfect bread” 

The brunette blinked at her, almost in a trance she wordlessly took the hand Runo held out to her and let herself be pulled up.

“That sounds nice, oh um, my name's Quin, that uh, didn’t come up before” they said, awkwardly trailing off, smiling up at Runo regardless.

Runo laughed, her stomach fluttering in a familiar sensation she hadn’t felt in years. 

“I’m Runo” 

//

When Judas returned with their drink, some special of the day, Runo told them the story. Gushing the appropriate amount about Quin as Judas sat listening, smiling at their friends' lovestruck attitude. 

Eventually the conversation drifted to over topics, some normal and some that only two immortals could understand. Anyone listening in would be completely hopeless to understand, or on crack and understand perfectly. 

A few hours passed and Runo noticed how the sky had turned from blue to an orange purple gradient. Judas let out a low whistle. 

“That late huh? Man how much do you think this place hates us for ordering one drink and then sitting here all afternoon?” Judas grinned, leaning forward on the table. Runo laughed, looking at a particular annoyed looking barista from the corner of her eye. 

“Eh, if it was that big a deal they could’ve just kicked us out” Judas nodded, laughing at her comment. The pair stood up, Judas pulling their jacket back around them, to Runo’s disappointment, part of her wished they would keep their ‘SLUT’ shirt out and proud.

“Ah, parting is such sweet sorrow” Judas lamented, sighing overdramatically before Runo pulled them into a hug.

“Reminder to invite me around for dinner some time, I’ve missed Quin too, plus her bread is good shit” Judas whispered in her ear.

“Don’t worry, I’ll reunite you two soon” 

“Me and the bread?” 

“Duh” 

Judas laughed, ruffling Runo’s hair to her protest. The two separated, stepping away from their table Runo tossed a hefty tip back before beginning her walk. 

The pair walked in comfortable silence for a while, Runo’s way home and Judas’s way to the bus in similar directions. They soon reached the street corner where they would split ways.

“Runo” Judas broke the silence, placing a hand on her shoulder. She raised an eyebrow at them, surprised at their serious tone. 

“Yeah?” 

“I just wanted to say, I’m real happy for you Rune, I know how it is with the ‘immortal tries to find their lover’ shit, takes forever, finding Gerard is always hard, then when I’ve got him again it feels like the stars realign and whatever else romantic bs” Runo snorts, earning a smile from Judas.  
“I’m not really going anywhere with this, I guess I just want you to know us immortals got your back with the whole yearning for eternity stuff, you know how Nine reacted the first time he met Moon” she did, the Victorian era was fun for all of them. “Pam always gets on my case about the made up rules we have, and you act as my enabler, so today I’m your enabler, go and enjoy this life time” 

Runo was admittedly close to tears, quickly she pulled Judas into a hug before they could see her eyes. They did, but they didn’t comment, they did let out a smug laugh however. 

//

Barely ten minutes later, Runo found herself back at her apartment. Maybe she had half-jogged half-speedwalked but that was anyone's guess. It didn’t matter, she was home. 

Opening the door, she took note of how dark the place was. All the lights were off and the only noise was a quiet buzzing from the tv. 

“Quin?” she called into the room, making her way into the main living room of the apartment. What greeted her was the sight of Quin, her glasses were pushed up and tilted in between their nose and the sofa cushion, laid out and tucked up under a few blankets and a familiar hoodie Runo was pretty sure belonged to her, on the sofa asleep. On top of Quin was Runo’s cat, Bee, stretching and hopping off from Quin to walk over to nudge against Runo and meow. 

Runo took a deep breath, clutching her hand over her heart whilst using the other arm to hold the wall. Perhaps she had finally found the key to killing an immortal, overload of cuteness. 

Before anything else, she took a picture of the scene and made it her new background, then as quietly as she could, Runo attempted to sneak past Quin and turn the tv off. Achieving one step she tiptoed back to her girlfriend, carefully pulling the blankets up and tucking them in, carefully slipping their glasses off next.

In their sleep, Quin mumbled, shifting herself before setting back. Runo let out a breath, smiling and placing a kiss to her partner's forehead, sleeping Quin scrunched up her nose in response. 

Carefully, she slipped out of the room and into her bedroom, changing in some sweatpants and an old tank top. Once changed, she sat down at her desk, going through her usual process of unbraiding her hair before pulling it all into a single loose ponytail. She let out a content sigh at the lack of pull her hair now had, and starred in the mirror. 

She hadn’t thought to ask Judas how those lightning marks on their hips had developed, the two had briefly discussed how the cracks on Runo had changed. A decade or so ago they had been hidden pretty well under her t-shirt, but now they had made their way up and across her face, the one on the right going right up and through her eye and past, the other was just reaching her cheek.  
The rest of it was simply making its way down her shoulder and chest, though she had taken note of the one on her hip getting larger. 

‘Kind of looks like a crack in a statue’ Nine had said, so far nothing had shown up on him, though he had mentioned apparently looking a little too translucent sometimes. Kitkat had guessed that age had to show some way or another, although immortals had some control over how they appeared physically, none of them could change the scar like marks. It had been easier when she could hide them, but now walking down the street made Runo look like some battle scarred fighter. The reality was she was just old, and tired.

A quiet thud came from the other room, Runo got up to to check Quin hadn’t rolled off the sofa in their sleep. 

Unfortunately, it did appear that they had woken up, a groggy groan coming from the blanket pile and a stray arm poking out confirmed that. Runo could see Quin’s phone on the floor, deducing her partner must have knocked it off the coffee table she picked it up, taking a hold of the stray arm and lacing their fingers together. 

“Good nap?” she asked quietly. She got a groggy mumble of a sentence in response, unable to stop herself from laughing.

“S’not funny, naps are evvvvvil” Quin’s voice was slightly slurred from her half asleep state and Runo couldn’t help but lean in and press a kiss to her partners forehead. 

“What about a nap with me?” Quin didn’t respond for a moment, considering the offer. 

“Good”

“Is that a yes?”

“It’s a cuddle me” 

Runo snorted “You sound like mario honey”

She could see Quin grin from under her blankets and stuck her tongue out in response, before poking at the blankets. 

“Ight move up then and make room”

A moment of shuffling and repositioning later, the two had managed to get comfortable on the limited space. ‘Comfortable’ of course meaning Quin was almost entirely on Runo, with their head tucked into Runo’s neck and her leg thrown over the taller girls with Runo’s arms wrapped around the two of them, making them a blanket cocoon. 

“Comfy?” Quin asked, Runo nodded in response, shifting once more before settling her chin on top of Quin’s head. 

“Should probably order food” Quin mumbled against Runo, prompting her to laugh quietly. 

“Anything in particular” 

“Nugget” 

“Just one?” 

“Two nugget” 

“Cool, I’ll just call mcdonald’s and see if they can send two singular nuggets over” 

Quin went quiet for a moment, pushing herself up slightly to look Runo in the eyes.  
“Do you think they actually would?”

“I mean, if we’re paying them” 

Quin breathed out a laugh through her nose, kissing Runo’s cheek before settling back down. She let out a content sigh, happy to lay in the comfortable warm bubble the two had made. But, Quin mumbled something surprising 

“Had a dream about you”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, you were all purple and floating, you kept asking questions like ‘is it done’ or ‘capture my good side’ all joking” She laughed, shaking her head. Runo blinked, that didn’t sound too strange, besides people have weird dreams all the time.

“I can barely remember anyways, one thing was weird though”

“What was weirder than me being purple?” 

“Your scar” they sat up, bringing one hand to cup Runo’s cheek, tracing the marking with their thumb “It was smaller, I think”

That got Runo’s breath to stutter, her body going stiff. Her marks had been smaller when she had first met Quin decades ago. She didn’t know what that really meant, could Quin maybe remember that life? Runo hadn’t spent any time with someone that knew her in a past life other than Quin. Was it possible that bonds like that could last more than a lifetime, her only point of reference for such a thing was a cartoon and Runo didn’t think fantasy cartoons were the greatest place to take facts from. Still, if Quin could remember details, she wondered if Judas had ever had Gerard remember something, it didn’t seem like Quin’s dream gave any real concrete reminders of well, anything except Runo being purple?  
She shook her head, laughing. 

“Huh, weird” Quin nodded, her eyes focused on where her thumb was tracing Runo’s mark, the act was oddly comforting, making Runo involuntarily lean into Quin’s hand. Quin giggled, leaning up to give Runo a quick peck before resting back into her former space.

“Yeah, it confused me” she yawned, cuddling back against Runo and letting the comfortable silence return.

She’d have to ask Judas if they knew anything about memories carrying over or not, but for now there were far more important matters at hand.

“But seriously, dinner, pizza sound good?”

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus details, Judas, Nine, Kitkat and Pam are also all immortal, haven't figured out the details of Kitkat and Pam but I just thought the idea was neat. 
> 
> Yes there's no real point to this, it's just sort of day to day life but also girlfriend 1 is immortal and sometimes gay yearns and waxes poetically and doesn't understand how toasters work. It happens!  
> But yes, this is really just like having fun, I don't check my writing for anything so hope you enjoy the errors I don't care enough to correct!


End file.
